© Copyright 2004 Catholic Exchange
Craig Richardson is the principal of Richardson Consulting, LLC, a political and fundraising firm based in Washington, D.C. He provides strategic political and fundraising services to Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Richardson was confirmed as a Roman Catholic in 2000 and in the fall of that year he enrolled in a master’s of arts program in Catholic Systematic and Moral Theology at the Notre Dame Graduate School affiliated with Christendom College. He is married to Elizabeth Richardson and is the father of two boys.
Craig Richardson is the founder of the recently launched Catholic Action Network, an organization committed to calling Catholics to authentic and faithful citizenship.
Phone numbers of Catholic senators who voted “Nay” on FMA cloture:
Senator Joseph Biden
202-224-5042
District Office
302-573-6345
Senator John Breaux
202-224-4623
District Office
504-589-2531
Senator Maria Cantwell
202-224-3441
District Office
206-220-6400
Senator Sue Collins
202-224-2523
District Office
207-780-3575
Minority Leader Tom Daschle
202-224-5556
District Office
605-334-9596
Senator Chris Dodd
202-224-2823
District Office
860-258-6940
Senator Richard Durbin
202-224-2152
District Office
312-353-4952
Senator Tom Harkin
202-224-3254
District Office
319-365-4504
Senator Edward Kennedy
202-224-4543
District Office
617-565-3170
Senator Mary Landrieu
202-224-5824
District Office
504-589-2427
Senator Patrick Leahy
202-224-4242
District Office
802-863-2525
Senator Barbara Mikulski
202-224-4654
District Office
410-962-4510
Senator Patty Murray
202-224-2621
District Office
206-553-5545
Senator Jack Reed
202-224-4642
District Office
401-943-3100
Senator John Sununu
202-224-2841
District Office
603-647-7500
Among the Senators voting were twenty-three self-described Catholics. Senator John Kerry (MA), the 24th self-identified Catholic and his running mate Senator John Edwards (NC) missed the vote.
Sadly, fifteen Catholic senators (listed below) voted against the procedural motion that would have allowed the Senate to vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA). The motion was defeated by a margin of 48-50, which required 60 votes for passage. If these fifteen Catholics had supported the position advocated by the U.S. Conference of Bishops (USCCB), the Knights of Columbus, religious leaders and their fellow worshipers from across the ethnic and faith spectrum, countless pro-family organizations, millions of people across the country who completed a petition in favor of the FMA, and the tens of thousands of supporters who literally overwhelmed the U.S. Capitol switchboard to the point that calls could not get through, the cloture vote would have been successful and the Senate may have eventually passed the FMA.
The Catholic Church’s position on marriage could not be clearer nor could the campaign in support of the FMA by the Church have been less unequivocal. The USCCB’s lobbying effort in favor of the FMA included personal phone calls from bishops to their particular senators urging their support as well as office visits, letters, and an aggressive press outreach effort.
USCCB President Bishop Wilton Gregory said in a July 6 letter to every U.S. senator, “The Catholic Bishops of the United States strongly urge you to vote AGAINST any effort that would prevent the Senate from voting on this important measure [the FMA], as well as to vote FOR the measure once the Senate takes it up.” In a press release issued the same day, Bishop Gregory added that the USCCB urges the senators to support “amending the United States Constitution to preserve and protect this vital institution that undergirds the well-being of spouses, children, families, communities and society itself.”
Monsignor William F. Fay, General Secretary of the USCCB, participating in a press conference with other religious leaders the day before the vote, said that the USCCB “gives its full and unequivocal support to the Federal Marriage Amendment that would amend the United States Constitution to define marriage as consisting only of the union of a man and a woman. Safeguarding the nature of marriage has always been one of the Catholic Church’s constant concerns.”
In addition, in the weeks leading up to the vote, priests reiterated from the pulpit the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage and the need to protect it and in some cases petition drives were held following Masses, which were mailed to home-state senators.
Sadly, once again, a group of Catholic senators rejected the clarion call of their Faith, ignored the pleas from the bishops and the grassroots, and voted in essence against the FMA. Not once did these senators actually address the merits of the issue at hand but several instead turned to ugly partisan politics as a way to justify themselves.
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, one of the founders of Cafeteria Catholicism, said in a floor statement about the FMA, “It speaks volumes that the Senate Republican leadership has taken this disgraceful detour into right-wing campaign politics…This is about politics, an attempt to drive a wedge between one group of citizens and the rest of the country, solely for partisan advantage.”
Following the vote, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy said, “Once again this president has shown himself to be a divider and not a uniter. Every political calculation Republican strategists could have made has been made in their handling of this proposal to amend the Constitution.”
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin in a floor statement said, the “real reason [for the FMA] is to change the subject of the presidential election campaign because the Republican side of the aisle and those who are supporting this administration don't want a debate during this presidential campaign on the issues that most Americans identify as important in their lives.”
It’s not surprising that most of these fifteen self-identified Catholic senators once again find themselves at odds with the Faith they profess. The American Life League ran an advertisement awhile back highlighting “The Deadly Dozen,” featuring twelve U.S. Senators who consistently vote pro-abortion despite the Church’s clear pro-life teaching. The twelve pro-abortion senators identified by the American Life League include Ted Kennedy, Tom Harkin (IA), John Kerry, Richard Durbin, Chris Dodd (CT), Susan Collins (ME), Jack Reed (RI), Patty Murray (WA), Mary Landrieu (LA), Patrick Leahy, Barbara Mikulski (MD), and Joseph Biden (DE). In terms of the FMA, every single one of these senators, except for John Kerry who missed the vote, once again scandalously parted ways with the Church on a major tenet of the Faith and opposed the measure. The other four Catholic senators ignoring the Church on this vote were Senators John Breaux (LA), Maria Cantwell (WA), Tom Daschle (SD), and John Sununu (NH).
Despite the prognostication of the secular press that this issue is dead and that it will not have an impact in the upcoming elections, those in support of the measure see last week’s vote as only the beginning. Catholic Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who took a leading role in support of the FMA, said immediately following the vote, “I see this vote today as a first step in the process of preserving the integrity of the institution of marriage for future generations.” Another active Catholic senator on the FMA, Sam Brownback of Kansas, said, “We won on substance and lost on procedure” and predicted a “long and extended discussion about what is marriage.”
Added Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, “the Knights of Columbus, in solidarity with the Catholic bishops of the United States, will fight for as long as it takes in order to ensure that marriage, defined as the union of a man and a woman, is protected in law.”
There is a reason we hold federal elections every two years in this country. Hopefully with an energized and activated grassroots maybe some of these Catholic elected officials who continually vote against the time-tested teaching of the Faith will discover the reason why some day.
St. Thomas More, pray for us.
